Visiting Angels

My family and I made the unfortunate mistake of hiring the Visiting Angels to help take care of my grandparents during their last days. While my grandmother was on hospice and wanted to be in comfort of her own home and my grandfather ridden with alzheimer's disease, we thought it would be best to hire a companion service who could assist them with daily chores and to keep a decent quality of life. Instead of getting any of those things, we got a bunch of immature and irresponsible girls who would do none of the following.



One girl left in the middle of her shift (leaving my grandparents completely unattended) to have a hot and steamy make out session with her boyfriend in his car parked out front of my grandparents house. I happened to drive up to Greeley to visit my grandparents and caught the caregiver in the act, otherwise we would never have known.



Another girl stole several family heirlooms and pieces of jewelry from my grandparents house, which we never recovered and that she claims were given to her as gifts. Money was constantly missing out of my grandfather's wallet (he had always taken the task of always having $100 in his wallet at all times). This same girl even played on the kindness and good nature of my dying grandmother and alzheimer-ridden grandfather and convinced them to write her checks to cover her own rent and gas to get to this job or to take my grandfather on "joy-rides" to get him out of the house. After the police were called because of this girl in particular, it came to our attention that she had had a suspended license for quite some time and was not supposed to be driving, let alone taking my elderly grandfather with her on "joy rides". This should tell you about the illegitimacy of this agency if they hire employees without performing the correct background checks or information. Is this the type of place you would want to hire to take care of your loved ones?



One woman would go outside and smoke routinely while on the job, while my grandmother was inside slowly dying of lung cancer!



And to top it off, almost every single one of the so-called "care givers" that my grandparents had would always be on their cell phones, laptops, and watching some trash on MTV. The chores that were supposed to be done, rarely got accomplished (laundry, dishes, basic housekeeping tasks) and were only completed by members of my family who stopped by to visit. I know my grandparents wouldn't have appreciated the level of care they received, but when you are pumped up on morphine and/or have alzheimer's disease you really don't know any better.



Had we known better at the time, we would have completely stopped this service. Not only is this agency expensive for the round-the-clock care we paid for for months, they gave us the run around and failed to accept responsibility for their employee's actions. The girls they hire and send you are no other than irresponsible teenagers who have no self regard for those they are supposed to be taking care of, who steal items from your loved one's house and pray off of the kindness of the elderly. And to that I advice extreme caution to not use the Visiting Angels care service for any of your families' needs. The service may be better in other cities, but with the level of attention they took in hiring these women (or lack thereof) I highly doubt it.